April 25, 1835. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
337 
been appointed head gardener to the Earl of Yarborough, Brocklesby 
Park, Ulceby, Lincolnshire. 
- Metropolitan Parks. —Messrs. James Carter & Co. desire 
ns to state that they have been requested by the London County Council 
to supply grass seeds for the parks which are under the control of that 
body in and around the metropolis. 
-The Maidenhead Horticultural Society will hold its 
eleventh annual Show in the grounds of Bay Lodge, Maidenhead, on 
August 15th. Mr. 0. King, Bay Park Cottage, Maidenhead, is the 
Secretary. 
- The Alverstoke and Gosport Chrysanthemum Society 
will hold its second Exhibition at Gosport on October 31st and Novem¬ 
ber 1st, Secretary, Mr. J. Mitchell, Cemetery Lodge, Ann’s Hill. 
- The Notts Horticultural Society.— A Nottingham paper, 
dated the 18th inst., reaches us just as we are going to press, and 
from it we learn that a paper on the Narcissus was read by Mr. 
J. W. Pearson at the last monthly meeting of the above Society. The 
paper appears to have been an excellent one, and to have met with 
warm acceptance by the company present, 
- Deferring to the Climate at Ilfracombe, Devon, a 
visitor writes :—“ Scurvy Grass (Cochlearia) is in abundance on all the 
walls and rocks facing the sea. A pink variety of it is very plentiful. 
I have never seen it before. To give some idea of the climate I may 
mention that Myrtles form large bushes, and Fuchsias are small trees 
Cytisus racemosus is a large bush in front of the hotel, and a 
Eucalyptus, with a stem as thick as a man’s thigh, is against the house.” 
-A French Horticultural Society has recently been 
established in London, its object being to induce a greater number of 
young French horticulturists to come to England to extend their 
knowledge. It also proposes to give such information on horticultural 
matters to its members as the latter may desire. Among those con¬ 
nected with the new Society may be mentioned Messrs. Ouvrard, 
Schneider, and Villard, and its head-quarters will be 3, Macclesfield 
Street, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W. 
- Judging the Quality of Fruit. —An excellent cultivator 
stated last week that the flavour of Melons can be accurately judged 
by the aroma. A French contemporary describes a more novel 
method of recognising the quality of Pears. The Pears, it says, on 
which one can write his name with facility, and of which the dry skin 
does not rebel against the ink, are generally of remarkable quality. 
Those, on the contrary, of which the skin is greasy, and resists the 
absorption of the ink, are of inferior quality. 
- The twelfth annual dinner in connection with the Wake¬ 
field Paxton Society, held last week, was the most successful of 
the series. Mr. Henry Oxley, the President of the Society, occupied 
the chair, and was well supported by officials and friends. The speech 
of the evening was made by Mr. W. H. Stewart, J.P., and combined 
humour with eloquence. He somewhat donbted if Adam was a gar¬ 
dener because he had no trouble in cultivation, kindly Nature raising 
the fruits which he enjoyed ; but whether he was a gardener or not, 
he thought some of his descendants in these days could teach him a 
“ few wrinkles.” 
-The Crystal Palace Floral and Horticultural Exhi¬ 
bitions are numerous. From the useful handbook recently issued by the 
Company we gather that the Summer Flower Show is fixed for Saturday, 
May 11th ; the National Bose Society’s Exhibition for Saturday, July 6th ; 
the Co-operative Flower, Fruit, and Vegetable Show for Saturday, 
August 17th ; the Fruit Exhibition, with the National Dahlia Society’s 
Show, for Friday and Saturday, September 6th and 7th ; the Great 
Autumn Fruit Show for October 10th, 11th, and 12th ; and the Chrysan¬ 
themum Exhibition for Friday and Saturday, November 8th and 9th. 
Mr. W. G. Head will superintend the arrangements. 
- Exhibition of Hyacinths at Haarlem.—M r. E. H. 
Krelage informs us that his Show of these flowers opened on the 21st 
inst., and will continue till the middle of May, but the plants will be 
at their best in the last days of April. This Exhibition consists of two 
large beds, each of more than 600 plants, protected by a large tent. It 
embraces the best varieties as well as the latest novelties, some of which 
are valued at £5 5s. a bulb. A circular containing some particulars 
of the Exhibition is also sent. In May a special Show of early single 
Tulips, two beds each of more than 600 plants, will be held in the 
establishment. Foreign visitors will be welcomed to these Shows, 
- The Bath Floral FStes for this season number four. 
The Spring Show will be held on May 15th, the Bose Show on July 4th, 
the Autumn Show on September 4th and 5th, and the Chrysanthemum 
Show on November 13th and 14th. At the spring Exhibition there will be 
a class for ten stove or greenhouse plants in bloom and six ornamental 
foliage plants, with prizes value £15, £10, and £5, and a class for a 
group with prizes value £8, £5, and £3. At the Bose Show the principal 
class is for seventy-two blooms grown and shown by nurserymen, the 
first prize being a silver cup or eight guineas, the second £5, and the 
third £2 10s. In the amateurs’ division there is a silver cup or £5 as 
first prize, £3 as second, and £2 as third for thirty-six blooms. Valuable 
prizes are also offered at the other Shows. The Secretary is Mr. B. 
Pearson, 14, Milsom Street, Bath. 
- Medical Electricity and Writers’ Cramp. —The in¬ 
creasing employment of electricity for curative purposes formed the 
subject for consideration at the last meeting of the British Association 
of Medical Electricians. The President (Mr. C. B. Harness) read a 
paper describing the special and successful treatment of a case of 
rheumatic arthritis, which had been discharged from a London hospital 
as incurable ; while Professor Loreau submitted the details of a casein 
which the same agency, conjointly with Zander’s mechanical exercises, 
had cured writers’ cramp. In the latter instance the treatment extended 
over about a fortnight, during which period the handwriting of the 
patient, as appeared from the specimens produced, had improved very 
rapidly. 
- West Indian Plants. —“ L.” sends the following paragraphs! 
“ Those interested in descriptions of tropical scenery and vegetation can 
find much to their taste in Kingsley’s ‘ At Last, a Christmas in the 
West Indies,’ and many of the plants there mentioned are either 
unknown here or rarely seen in British gardens. I was particularly 
struck by a note on two plants which are strangers to me, and I shall 
be glad to know if any of your readers are aware whether they are in 
cultivation or not. The reference is as follows, p. 145, in a description 
of Monos. ‘ On our way back to our island paradise we found along 
the shore two plants worth notice. One (Jacquinia armillaris) a low 
tree, with leaves somewhat like Box, but obovate, and racemes of little 
white flowers of a delicious honey scent. It ought to be, if it be not 
yet, introduced into England, as a charming addition to the winter 
hothouse. 
- “/As for the other plant—(C ombretum laxifolium)— 
would that it could be introduced likewise, or rather that if introduced 
it would flower in a house, for it is a glorious climber, second only to 
that which poor Dr. Krueger called ‘the wonderful Norantea.’ You 
see a tree blazing with dark gold, passing into orange, and that to red, 
and on nearing it find it tiled all over with the flowers of a creeper 
arranged in flat rows of spreading brushes, some foot or two long and 
holding each hundreds of flowers, growing on one side only of the twig, 
and turning their multitudinous golden and orange stamens upright to 
the sun. There, I cannot describe it. It must be seen afar off, and 
then close, to understand the vagaries of splendour in which Nature 
indulges here.’ ” 
- The so-called Wild Gardens which have come into favour 
with many amateurs are now gay with spring flowers, and for several 
weeks that portion of the grounds bearing this designation in the 
Boyal Gardens, Kew, has been very attractive. Near the Cumberland 
Gate is a high and extended mound, the slopes and base of which have 
been thickly planted with bulbs and Primroses. Daffodils have been 
employed very freely and have been flowering abundantly this year, not 
in formal clumps or beds, but scattered about beneath the trees in a 
natural manner that is most pleasing, their golden flowers lighting up 
the darkest nooks. Brilliant blue Scillas and Chionodoxas afford a 
relief in colour, and then come the Primroses and Polyanthuses in all 
shades, from the palest sulphur to the richest, deepest crimson. No 
wonder these plants are such favourites, their simple beauty everyone 
can understand and appreciate. 
-Narcissus nobilis, variiformis, and Grasse Daffodil.— 
Will some enlightened member of the Daffodil Committee inform me 
which of the trio John Parkinson refers to in his work published 1629 1 
I admire the illustration given by you in last week’s Journal over the 
heading variiformis ; but if I remember rightly this Daffodil was first 
introduced, I think in the year 1885, by Mr. Collins of the firm of 
Collins & Gabriel under the name of Bicolor minor, when what is 
known now as the “ Grasse Daffodil ” was sold as variiformis. In the 
following year Mr. Collins lost the term just as he did in the case of 
